Sunday, 30 September 2007

Croatian leaders have condemned a UN war crimes court for passing"shameful" sentences for a 1991 massacre by Serb-led forces and said they would protest to the UN Security Council.

The UN tribunal in the Hague sentenced a former Yugoslav army officer to 20 years in jail for aiding and abetting the killings of 194 people in the town of Vukovar. A second ex-officer recieved five years for standing by while prisoners were tortured but cleared of more serious charges and a third was acquitted.

Stjepan Mesic, the president, said the sentences were "utterly unacceptable" whilst Ivo Sanader, the prime minister called them"shameful".

Sanader said the sentences were a "defeat of the whole idea of theHague tribunal". "We shall lodge a strong protest with the UN Security Council,"Sanader said.

He also gave orders to send a protest to the chairman of UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

'Killed once again'

Prosecutors said the victims were largely civilians and sought life sentences for the three officers for effectively allowing the killings to take place.

Vladimir Seks, the speaker of the Croatian parliament said "with this verdict, the Vukovar victims are as good as killed once again".

The ruling shocked the Croatian public, which sees Vukovar as a symbol of the country's suffering and its struggle for independence from Serb-dominated Yugoslavia.

Mile Mrksic, 60, a colonel in the Serb army at the time of the offence and the commander of the Serb forces in the region, received a 20-year sentence for withdrawing protection of Croatians and other non-Serbs, who were later killed by Serb paramilitary forces.

Veselin Sljivancanin, 54, the area's chief security officer, was sentenced to five years for failing to protect the Croatians, who were considered prisoners of war, from beatings and torture by the local Serb paramilitary forces and Territorial Defence units.

Miroslav Radic, 45, the third of the group known as the "Vukovar Three", was found to have had nothing to do with the cruelty meted out to the hospital evacuees and ultimately their murder.

Night of torture

Radic was ordered to be released immediately. Sljivancanin, who was arrested by Serb authorities in June 2003, will be credited for his time in detention and will be released within a year.

The hospital in the eastern Croatian town fell to the Serb army in November 1991 after a three-month siege that virtually levelled the town. When an agreed hour approached, an armoured Serb vehicle blocked access across a bridge to the hospital while buses took another routeto smuggle out the men seized inside the building.

More than 200 men were taken first to a Serb army barracks, then to a pig farm at Ovcara where they passed through lines of soldiers who "beat them with wooden sticks, rifle butts poles chains and even crutches", said a court statement.

Croatian leaders denounced the U.N. war crimes tribunal on Friday for its "shameful" sentences in a 1991 massacre by Serb-led forces near Vukovar and said they would demand a full discussion at the United Nations.

President Stjepan Mesic said the sentences were "utterly unacceptable" and Prime Minister Ivo Sanader, who went overnight to Vukovar to calm angry residents, said he was "bewildered and disappointed" in a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon."

Vukovar remains the site of the worst war crimes committed in Croatia" and "together with Sarajevo and Srebrenica, ranks as one of the internationally recognised symbols of war and destruction", he wrote.

The U.N. court in The Hague on Thursday sentenced former Yugoslav army officer Mile Mrksic to 20 years in prison for enabling the massacre of194 people taken from a hospital in Vukovar, then besieged by Yugoslav and rebel Serb troops.

A second ex-officer, Veselin Sljivancanin, was sentenced to five years for torture but cleared of more serious charges. A third, MiroslavRadic, was acquitted on all counts.

Prosecutors had wanted life sentences for all three. Sanader's letter to Ban said Croatia would present its views at theU.N. general assembly and before U.N. security council." It is time to reassess all aspects of the tribunal's work," the letter said.The Hague tribunal ruling shocked the Croatian public, which sees Vukovar as a symbol of its suffering and struggle for independence from Serb-dominated Yugoslavia.

VUKOVAR MOTHERS

A group of 'Vukovar Mothers' staged a sombre protest at Zagreb's main square, lighting candles and carrying large photographs of their husbands and sons killed in Vukovar. The top-selling daily Jutarnji List wrote an editorial under the headline: "22,000 refugees, 3,000 killed, 260 patients executed. Perpetrators free".

The massacre at Vukovar, close to the border with Serbia, is seen asone of the most brutal episodes of the Yugoslav wars. Besieged at the start of the 1991-95 war, the town fell to Yugoslav forces after a relentless three-month siege. At least 264 people, mainly Croats who sought shelter in the local hospital believing they would be evacuated, were taken to a farm building in nearby Ovcara by Serb militias. The captives were beaten for several hours, then transported in groups of 10 to 20 to a site close by, where at least 264 were shot and buried with a bulldozer in a mass grave.

Prosecutors said the victims were largely civilians and sought life sentences for the three officers for effectively allowing the killings to take place. But the judges ruled that Croat fighters were also hiding in the hospital, pretending to be patients or staff. This invalidated charges of crimes against humanity, which apply only to atrocities against civilians, making the sentences lighter.

Serbia is holding a separate trial of 14 former Serb militia members accused of shooting and burying the victims of the massacre. A lower court found them guilty in December 2005, but the Supreme Court ordered a retrial, citing procedural errors.

Saturday, 29 September 2007

European Parliament head Hans-Gert Poettering commented on the verdicts of the 'Vukovar Three' after addressing the parliament.

Lajla Mlinarić Daria Lešić

After speaking before Croatian members of parliament on Friday, the head of the European Parliament, Hans-Gert Poettering, addressed reporters. He commented on yesterday's verdicts to the 'Vukovar Three' that shocked the Croatian public. This is a temporary verdict. Carla Del Ponte has lodged an appeal and I expect all the culprits to get real punishment, Poettering said, adding that Del Ponte had the greatest insight into the crimes.

He voiced his confidence in the chief prosecutor of the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague, hailing her decision to lodge an appeal.

Poettering congratulated Croatian Parliament Speaker Vladimir Seks and Croatia for their intensive drawing closer towards the European Union, stressing that the importance of today was that some two dozen new laws would be passed. I am expressing my honest wish that Croatia join the EU and that the European Parliament will consent to Croatia's accession into the European Union, he said. Seks said that in addressing the Croatian parliament, Poettering had" strongly confirmed Croatia's need to continue with reforms that are the foundation of a law-based state and to continue with the policy of good neighbourly relations with countries in the region".-In line with that, the parliament joins in efforts that Croatia adopts the legislature necessary for entering the EU - Seks said, voicing hope that Europe would open its doors to Croatia in 2009.

Croatia has reacted angrily to what it regards as the leniency of the Hague war crimes Tribunal's verdict in the case of three former Yugoslav army officers tried for the mass killing of Croats in Vukovar in 1991.

Prime Minister Ivo Sanader said Zagreb would send a protest to the UN Security Council which established the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, ICTY, in the 1990s."I want to state that this is a defeat for the Hague Tribunal", Sanader said after the verdicts were delivered Thursday. "I do not even want to comment these verdicts, because they are shameful".

The ICTY's judges acquitted one of the accused, Miroslav Radic, passed a five-year sentence on Veselin Sljivancanin for torture and a 20-year sentence on Mile Mrksic for murder and torture. The accused had been on trial for involvement in the torture and killing of 264 Croat prisoners of war and civilians who had been taken from Vukovar's hospital to a nearby farm at Ovcara after the town was captured by Serb forces in November 1991.

Croatian President Stipe Mesic said the verdicts were unacceptable not only because of their leniency but also because of the judges' inadequate explanations that accompanied them."

These sentences are very disappointing, especially for the familiesof victims", said Vesna Terselic of the Croatian organization, DOCUMENTA, Center for Dealing with Past."

I cannot erase from my memory television pictures showing Sljivancanin in front of the buses which transported prisoners and civilians to the location where they were tortured and later slaughtered. I expect the prosecution will appeal against the verdict", Terselic told Balkan Insight.

Vukovar inhabitants gathered late into the night on Thursday at the Ovcara memorial to light candles in memory of the victims and express their anger at the ICTY's verdict.

In his letter to Ban Ki-Moon, Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader expressed profound disappointment with the verdicts to the Vukovar three.

Ivona Barić - Hina M.P.

The letter that Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader sent to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, expressing profound disappointment with the verdict passed by the Hague Tribunal (ICTY) to the former officers of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) for war crimes committed in Vukovar in 1991, will be distributed to the United Nations and Security Council member states over the next few days as a document of the U.N. General Assembly, said Secretary-General's spokesman Farhan Haq on Friday.- When such letters are received, with a request that they be put incirculation as documents, this is promptly put into motion and circulation, so we expect that this will be done in the next few days- said spokesman Haq.- If a letter contains a request for it to be forwarded to the Security Council as a document, then this will be done. This is anaction taken by the U.N. Secretary-General - said Haq in response to the question if the Secretary-General's response to the letter was to be expected.

He added that the letter will be distributed as a General Assembly document early next week. Prime Minister Sanader's letter was delivered to the office of the U.N. Secretary-General in the afternoon on Friday through Croatia's Permanent Mission to the U.N., as the deputy of the Croatian representative at the U.N., ambassador Amir Muharemi, confirmed to news agency Hina.

Fahran Haq: Long prison sentences for the accused two

At the beginning of the press conference on Friday, Fahran said that ICTY had given 'long' prison sentences to the two men indicted for war crimes in Vukovar, while the third man had been acquitted.

When the press asked him on what grounds he assessed that the prison sentences were long and whether he knew that they had stirred bitterness among the Croatian public as exceptionally unjust, he said that there are always those who are not satisfied with verdicts, but that the Tribunal always heeds the rules of the process.- Obviously, whenever there is a verdict, either one or the other side can be dissatisfied with it, at the same time ICTY is trying to heed the process and pass verdicts in keeping with the basic rules - said Haq.- When there is a need to appeal a verdict, action needs to be taken in that direction - he said, adding that he could not speculate on the manner in which the ICTY judges had arrived to the verdict.

Asked to comment on ICTY prosecutors' dissatisfaction with the verdict, Haq said that the prosecutors tried to ensure as long sentences as possible for those charged with the crimes, but that the decision on the verdict was made by judges.

The rift between verdicts and historical facts

In his letter to Ban Ki-Moon, the Croatian Prime Minister expressed "profound disappointment and astonishment" with the verdicts to the former JNA officers, pointing out that there was an obvious rift between the verdicts and historical facts regarding their crimes.

He announced that Croatia would state its opinion on the issue during the debate at the General Assembly, under the item 77 of the agenda (report on ICTY's work), as well as before the Security Council.

Sanader asked that his letter be distributed among the U.N. member states as a General Assembly document under the item 77 of the agenda and as a Security Council document.

PM Sanader has informed the German chancellor Angela Merkel about the unacceptable verdict of the Hague court in the "Vukovar Three" case.

Joseph Stedul - Hina M.P.

The Croatian premier Ivo Sanader, during his participation at the convention of the German CSU in Munich, informed the German chancellor Angela Merkel that the verdict of the Hague court in the "Vukovar Three" case is unacceptable, it says in the report of the Cabinet on Friday night.

The premier informed the president of the Bavarian Cabinet, Edmund Stoiber, the Austrian vice-chancellor Wilhelm Molter, and talked with some other European premiers, it says in the report.

At the CSU convention, Ivo Sanader used the opportunity to hand outthe letter he sent to the chief secretary of the UN, Ban Ki-Moon, to the members of the European Parliament present, and familiarise them with the contents.

According to the Cabinet's report, during conversations, the European parliamentarians voiced their disapproval of the verdict which, obviously, did not punish the horrifying crime. On Thursday, the board of the Hague court convicted the former commander of the JNA (Yugoslav People's Army), Mile Mrksic, to 20 years in prison, mayor Veselin Sljivancanin to five years in prison, whilst captain Miroslav Radic was freed of charges. All three of the former JNA members were accused for the massive slaughter.

Minister Kosor says that the Hague's decision is absolutely unacceptable, especially since the whole world witnessed the Vukovar crimes.

Ivona Barić
HinaPhoto: archive

Government Vice-President and Minister of the Family, Veterans and Intergenerational Solidarity Jadranka Kosor commented on the verdicts to the Vukovar three today, saying that it was an incredibly shameful decision by the Hague Tribunal.

For us in Croatia, the decision is incredible because we witnessed the Vukovar casualties and, to Vukovar citizens, it is absolutely unacceptable and beyond any reason, because they were exiled and because many of their sons and daughters died, said Kosor to the press on the occasion of the International Right to Information Day.

She says that the whole world witnessed the crime that occurred at the Vukovar hospital and on Ovcara. "We all are witnesses," Kosor said. She reiterated that the government would send a letter to the UN Security Council today and request a debate on the issue, but also to the Hague Tribunal's trial chamber, with clear and strict assessments saying that this is unacceptable and that such a verdict undermines the idea of the Hague Tribunal.

Asked if such a decision would have a negative effect on the citizens' support for Croatia's entry in the EU, Kosor says that she thinks that citizens are aware of how important it is for Croatia to join the EU and that the country should be at the table where decisions get made.

She says that she is certain that the citizens are mature enough to think about the benefits and advantages that membership in the EU brings.

War veterans association HVIDRA sent an official request to the Parliament asking them to end their cooperation with the HagueTribunal.
I
vona Barić Hina Photo: archive

Croatian Disabled Homeland War Veterans Association (HVIDRA) thinks that, with the verdict passed to the 'Vukovar three,' indicted for war crimes in Vukovar in 1991, the Hague Tribunal lost its credibility, said HVIDRA President Josip Djakic at a press conference today.

He says that this brings into question the ongoing purpose of the existence of the constitutional law on the cooperation of the Republic of Croatia with the International Tribunal in the Hague.

He points out that the association sent an official letter to the Croatian Parliament today requesting that a debate be started on the issue.

Djakic says that disabled homeland war veterans are embittered by the scandalous decisions made by the Hague Tribunal, "where they punish real war criminals for whom irrefutable evidence exists as if they had committed a traffic violation." "There is no justice, justice has died," says Djakic, adding that there is no international justice for Croatia. HVIDRA thinks that this verdict turns all the acts and resolutions into a "dead letter onpaper."

He asks whether the international community and the Hague prosecutors do not recognize the executioners who stood before the cameras and clearly and unambiguously gave orders to execute the wounded, the civilians and Vukovar citizens.

In response to a question about the protests, Djakic said that protests were held in Varazdin and Vukovar yesterday and are being held in Zagreb today. He announced that they would keep protesting and using every democratic means available to them to keep pointing to the fact that Croatia is once again in danger of those who are unable totell the victim from the aggressor.

Djakic says that they are not opposed to justice and justness, but merely want it to be applied equally to everyone. President of the HVIDRA management board Josip Perisa also voiced dissatisfaction with the Hague Tribunal's ruling. He pointed out thatthe ruling was a confirmation of a theory HVIDRA has had for years, that the Hague Tribunal was a political court whose purpose was to show that everyone in this region was the same and that there is neither a victim nor an aggressor here.